Ga(CN)
3 has been prepared for the first time witha new method for preparation of inorganic cyanides.Pure crystalline material is formed by reaction ofCl
2GaN
3 with SiMe
3CN viaelimination of SiMe
3N
3 andSiMe
3Cl.Reaction of GaCl
3 with SiMe
3CN alsoprovides Ga(CN)
3. A new convenient route toGeMe
3CN and SnMe
3CN isdescribed, but reactions of GaCl
3 with these compoundsresult in Lewis acid-base adducts. The compositionofGa(CN)
3 was confirmed by spectroscopic and elementalanalysis. Quantitative X-ray powder diffraction wasusedto refine the cubic structure, which has CN groups with orientationaldisorder in a Prussian-blue-like network structure.The symmetry is
Pmm,
a =5.295(2) Å. Ga is octahedrally surrounded by on averagethree C and three N atomswith a Ga-(C,N) bond length of 2.072(2) Å, and the C-N bondlength is 1.148(1) Å. LiGa(CN)
4 wasprepared byreaction of Ga(CN)
3 with LiCN and was characterized byquantitative X-ray diffraction. The symmetry is
P3
m,
a= 5.874(2) Å, and the structure consists of LiN
4and GaC
4 tetrahedra linked by C-N bonds to form twointerpenetratingnetworks of the Zn(CN)
2 type.CuGa(CN)
4 has a similar structure with
a = 5.729(5) Å, but Cu,Ga and/orC,Ndisorder cannot be ruled out.